Methods’ merits

Who's the speaker?

Name

Garmt Dijksterhuis

Company

WUR

Job title

Senior scientist/Expertise leader Consumer Understanding

Biography

Garmt studied psychology/methodology at Univ. Utrecht and has a PhD from Univ. Leiden. He has authored publications in sensory/consumer science, statistics and psychology. He is one of the founders of the Sensometric society and has over 25 year experience in sensory and consumer science working in academia, research institutes and the food industry. He is now expertise leader/senior scientist in the Consumer Understanding group at Food and Biobased Research (WUR).

Methods’ merits

Research methods in Sensory/Consumer Science aim to understand food choice. A great number of methods are in use which somehow address human behaviour. In many methods it is assumed that the consumer is a rational actor.

This can lead to a virtualisation of food choice studies where neither direct interaction with a food product, nor the study of actual behaviour are considered necessary. This negatively affects the validity of the method.

In this presentation a very critical attitude w.r.t. the choice of research method is advocated.